Latest / Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing / No money. No network. No excuses. How Linda Holtz went from immigrant to multifamily millions.

Transcript

No money. No network. No excuses. How Linda Holtz went from immigrant to multifamily millions. · Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_05: A thousand years ago it feels like I was in door-to-door sales.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Today's guest is Linda Holt, a multifamily investor and property management expert who turned a bold leap of faith into a mission to help others build passive wealth through real estate.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_05: The way I got into property management is that for me, as long as I could be warm during the winter and cold during the summer, I was like, I'm in, I'll answer the phone, I'll get yelled at, no problem.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_05: And that's how I became a property manager.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_05: And it was right around the time that you know I was at that age of I want to own where I live.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_05: And if I'm gonna own where I live, I might as well turn it into an investment.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_05: And so the first one I found was a triplex, it was three units, and my husband and I moved in the middle.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_06: So 200 plus units, that's big time.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_06: I was thinking you were doing smaller than that, but you do do smaller deals.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_06: What's kind of like the trigger on why you buy?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_06: Is it all about price or is it neighborhood or for us?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_05: It really kind of started with the size and the market.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_05: Again, me being for property management, and my husband has worked in property management before as well.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_05: Our idea was we want to do more real estate without being the lender.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_05: So immediately we went into the mode of at least 60 units and more so that it can justify third-party management.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_06: You've also grown a network, you know, that both you and your husband work pretty well with.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_06: Busy professionals that uh invest alongside with you, right?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, definitely.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_05: And and to us, that was one of the reasons we chose the group that we came out of, the coaching group, that taught us about uh multifamily syndications.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_05: Once we heard about the concept, we're like, okay, all the research, all the study, we could figure it out, right?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_05: Like now you have AI, you have Google, you have all these things.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_05: But for us very early on, it was like, but where are we gonna meet the players?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_05: And that's why we joined that group.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_05: That's why we've always been so big on networking, is because we really understand and value the power of relationships.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_06: What kind of due diligence and all that do y'all go into?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_06: You know, when you go into the properties?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_06: What kind of reporting do you do for your investors?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_06: I think it goes back to what do you see the next, you know, five, ten years of real estate looking like?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_05: That's a very good question.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_05: I think that.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Carson's Quarter.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_06: All right, I'm sitting here with Miss Linda Holt, um investor in real estate all through Texas, syndicating with her husband and uh long-term investors that they know very well together, and kind of a business they've uh done and continue to grow, and seems like you're having fun doing it.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_06: So anyway, Linda, how are you doing?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_05: I'm doing great.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much for having me on.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_05: And yes, it's all about having fun.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so you y'all are uh heavily invested in Texas.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_06: You're out of Illinois and you got into real estate.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_06: How did you get into your first triplex?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, that's a great question.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so I'm I'm my background, my professional background is in property management.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_05: Um a thousand years ago, it feels like I was in uh door-to-door sales.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_05: And the way I got into property management is that for me, as long as I could be warm during the winter and cool during the summer, I was like, I'm in, I'll answer the phone, I'll get yelled at, no problem.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_05: And that's how I became a property manager.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_05: And if there's any other property managers out there, you already know that you have to have very thick skin and it's not easy to take care of properties.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_05: So eventually I kind of looked at it like, you know what, if I'm gonna do this very not easy thing for other people, I might as well do it for myself.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_05: And um, and it was right around the time that you know I was at that age of I I want to own where I live.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_05: And if I'm gonna own where I live, I might as well turn it into an investment.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_05: And so the first one I found was a triplex.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_05: It was three units, and my husband and I moved in the middle.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_06: I love that.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_06: So I think you know, what you're getting into is being in the business as a property management really allows you to understand how important execution and operating the property is.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_06: Because if somebody doesn't run that proper property properly, I had trouble getting that one out.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_06: But if they don't run it properly, it could go to hell pretty quick.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, anyway, definitely.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_05: And it's also about, you know, it taught me a lot about people in general.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_05: It's uh, I mean, I'm from another country and I lived in a big city before moving here, and then when I moved to the US, I moved to New York first.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_05: So I realized very early on, like, people are just people everywhere.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_05: So getting into property management and realizing if you can turn a very angry person into a friend, like that's it, your golden life.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_06: So um, how do you describe the US compared to overseas?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_06: Is it just different?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, to me, it's all about opportunities.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, that's why I love being here.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_05: You know, when people ask me, I mean, hopefully we can be fully open here.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_05: I'm I'm an open book.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_05: I will always answer anything very transparently.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_05: And so when I moved to the US, I was 21.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I moved a week after my 22nd birthday.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_05: And um, I was just about to have my master's degree, but other than that, I really didn't have a network like that in my country.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_05: I came from France.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, I'm biracial, I'm a girl, and I was like, you got the tri affecta.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_05: Like you're female, you're young.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_05: So for me, it was like, where can I go where opportunities are not going to care about those three things?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_05: And and and for me, it was also about like the speed of it.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I know where I'm going long term, but instead of instead of it taking me 15, 20 years, where can I go where it's gonna take me a lot uh a lot less um time?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_05: And uh and so I I love the US for that.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_05: I came when I was a kid when my the first time here was I was like 12.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_05: So I was young but old enough to realize like, oh wait, here you can be whoever you want.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_05: And so that's why I picked here.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_06: You can be.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_06: It still takes a lot of hard work, which you're willing to put in.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_06: You've done that.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_05: Um too, is uh not to cut you off, but for me, I wanted to to be able to say, if I do put in the hours, I know we'll come back.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_05: Like there won't be any other factor holding me back as long as I work hard.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, eventually.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_06: It's not always immediate, but if you work hard enough, it'll eventually you have to have a little patience.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_06: You always see the uh end headline on like LinkedIn where somebody like, you know, they close the property, but it you don't see the six months of hard work or a year leading up to it, and sometimes longer than that.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_06: But I always tell people if they put in a good solid two years of relentless hard work, they can turn their life around or make something positive happen.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_06: So exactly.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_06: But yeah, so you've really, I think, surrounded yourself with a lot of uh positive people, you know, one being your husband, but you know, you've also grown a network, you know, that both you and your husband uh work pretty well with.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_06: Uh busy professionals that uh invest alongside with you, right?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, definitely.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_05: And and to to us, that was one of the reasons we chose um the the group that we came out of, the coaching group that taught us about uh multifamily syndications.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_05: Once we heard about the concept, we're like, okay, all the research, all the studying, we could figure it out, right?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_05: Like now you have AI, you have Google, you have all these things.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_05: But for us very early on, it was like, but where are we going to meet the players?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_05: And that's why we joined that group.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_05: That's why we've always been so big on networking, is because we really understand and value the power of relationships.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_06: There's so much, um, I don't know, the AI is limited.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_06: It can tell you like writing a book, but it kind of limits like, okay, what's that interaction?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_06: How does that feel like?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_06: And when you join groups and you see other people doing it, and it's not just okay, I could tell you to how to go do something, but when you watch them on a conference call or you hear them how they're talking to investors, how does that communication sound?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_06: And just little things that you can't pick up through AI is what I think you learn so much.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_06: Um there's different types of networking they open the door to, you know, and other stuff like that.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_06: So um, what do you think?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so let's talk about actually Texas and the size of uh size of the deals y'all go after and why and all that, and you know, let's let's hear about that.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_06: What areas are you going into?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, we're absolutely so so my husband is from Chicago, that's where we met, and then during COVID, we were those people who moved to Texas.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_05: We had several reasons, uh, but one of them was of course real estate, because at that point we knew our tropics was in Chicago.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_05: So by the time we moved, we knew we wanted to do this more and eventually full time.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_05: So we were like, okay, we want to be able to do it in a place that's more landlord-friendly and business friendly.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_05: And and and we we love Texas, we love that the weather and and you know the the no-income tax, we have family there, all that kind of stuff.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_05: So it was perfect for us.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_05: Um and then eventually we found multifamily while we were there, so it just makes made sense to start that business in that market because it's a it was great one.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_05: I still believe that it's a great one for that.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_05: And it also happened to be our backyard.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_05: Um, in terms of like the deals that we go after, so right now we have our two main deals are both over 200 units.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and then we have done a deal in yeah, we have done a deal in the past.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_05: Sorry?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_06: That's big.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_06: I mean 200 units.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_05: And and the funny thing is that both of those closed within I think six weeks of each other.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_05: Um by accident, but that's just how it happened, yeah.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah and then we have done one that was a hundred and twenty-ish and one that was sixty-five.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_05: And then we've also done a deal that um it's actually going to be a retail center.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, I like that.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_06: A little diversification.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_06: Um, what what kind of retail center?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_06: Is it like a new development or yes, yeah.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_05: It is a new development.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_05: That's why I said it's it's going to be uh it's it's one of those deals, so it's funny because the the um business plan on this one is to that we acquired the the land, we're building it right now, and then once it's completely leased up, we'll sell it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_05: Um but the more time goes on, the more I'm like, oh, I kind of wish we kept it to kind of to see you know what it feels like to manage a retail center, especially because this one, the whole concept, I think during COVID, people lost that feeling of going to the store and and all of that.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_05: And lately, I would say probably for about a year or so, there's a big resurgence of like malls, right?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_05: And like areas where you can go hang out, and like people love going to cafes and stuff like that again.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so that's really what we're trying to build.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_05: Is it yes, it's a retail center, it's it's what you would call a strip mall, right?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_05: But we're trying to be very intentional about we want it to become the place to hang out for the local community because it's actually in the middle of a huge new development that was built over several years with like single family homes, apartment complexes, even uh uh elementary school.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_05: So we love that.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_06: What what part of Texas is that?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_06: Is that Houston or Dallas or Yeah, that one is in the suburbs of Houston.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_06: Oh wow, okay.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_06: That's cool.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so 200 plus units, that's big time.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_06: I was thinking you were doing smaller than that, but you do do smaller deals.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_06: Um, what what's kind of like the trigger on why you buy?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_06: Is it all about price or is it neighborhood or you know, a combination probably of all of those, right?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, correct.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_05: And and for us it really kind of started with the size and and the market.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_05: Because we again, me being from property management, uh, and my husband has worked in property management before as well.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_05: Our idea was we want to do more real estate without being the landlord.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_05: So immediately we went into the mode of at least 60 units and more so that it can justify third-party management.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_05: Um now, eventually it evolved into nowadays, I would say probably, I don't know, 70, 80% of the discussion for us is who is gonna do the deal alongside us.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's a lot more important for us to see who are gonna be our partners than almost the deal itself.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, obviously we want to invest in good deals, we want to be in good markets, all of that.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_05: But we are we made it to that that phase of our journey where we're like, if somebody comes to us and it's somebody who we've done it we've wanted to do a deal with, we'll take a good look at it.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_05: If not, that might be the end of that.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_06: Well, at least you're honest about it.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_06: You know, you're like, I don't know about this guy.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_06: Um so when you say that, are you you're talking about like the uh investors you go in with or the people you buy it from, or both, or you know both.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_05: Honestly, it's yeah, the sellers also the the general partners that we're gonna do business with, or JV partners if that's the route we go, and then of course the investors as well.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_05: Especially because for me, the investors, so our our company values, one of them is family, because we mean it.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_05: We want to be able to treat our investors like family.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_05: We want to be able to ask about your kids and you know, maybe eventually, you know, come to their wedding, stuff like that.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_05: So if it's not the type of relationship we're gonna have, not to say that you can't invest with us, um, but for us, we're gonna want to have those deeper relationships.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_05: And so, yes, it yeah, it it matters too on with the passive investors for sure.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I think um it's kind of different now.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_06: I I just um I think you gotta be more careful about who you allow to be your investors, you know, that they understand that you're not Costco, you know.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_06: There's and I put that in a post today about Paul's book, but I just I think it's one of those where as long as they are seeing eye to eye with you and y'all are partners and they understand the risks that are involved, I think, you know, it's a good thing.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_06: But I think just allowing the general public to invest with you is not a good thing.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, exactly.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I have a very good friend shout out to Marianna Rabello, and she she was the first one to put into words for me where she was like, I want to be able to break bread with you.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_05: Like it doesn't matter, you know, who you are as as a person in terms of like personality or whatnot, we accept anyone, whatever you know, regardless of your color, your age, whatever.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_05: Um but I want to be able you I want to be able to have conversations, I want to be able to agree to disagree, things like that, you know.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's like you're always looking for investors, but you're looking for the right investors.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_06: Exactly.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_06: I know, I know.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_06: So um so you're doing pretty big units, and it's what do you um what do you see the next, you know, five, ten years of real estate looking like?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_05: That's a very good question.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I still have my property management job, and there's been so many talks about how AI is gonna replace all the jobs, including property management.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_05: I think that when it comes to real estate, one thing to understand is that you can only automate so much.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_05: And I really think that right now there's a lot of things disrupting the market.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_05: Like everybody wants to talk about data centers, and of course, interest rates never got as down as we thought they would ever again.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but all of those things, to me, the bottom line is people.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_05: I that that's what I have learned uh along my journey.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_05: That's what I have seen doing the deals that I've done, where it's like, hey, look, people are always gonna be people.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_05: Like if you ask me in 10 years, are we all gonna be in silver suits eating soup?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know, but I know that we'll still be humans.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_05: And that's really what what I think.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_05: Um I think that there's gonna be a switch probably in the next few months where people maybe years, where people are gonna realize, like, hey, you can go through all the AI you want and and do all that, but at the end of the day, we're all still betting on relationships.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_06: That's what I think too.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_06: I think relationships are always gonna matter.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_06: And there's too much trust involved in a real estate transaction to where it's on both sides.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_06: It's like, okay, who am I buying this from?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_06: Is it an owner that's hiding stuff?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_06: Um, who am I investing with?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_06: Who it's just there's so much to it.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_06: So I think that trust factor, there's too much of that.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_06: Um, I think you hear a lot about, you know, there's probably not going to be a crash, you know.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_06: Everybody talks about stuff like that, and that's just, you know, good online posting.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_06: But, you know, even though there's a good setup, I think it's too expensive politically to where the Fed will step in if there was kind of a setup like that.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_06: I don't think they'd let it go like 2008 did for that long.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I think they'll step in a a lot quicker than they did last time.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_06: So, you know, and they talk about housing shortage nationwide and each market's different.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_06: I just I don't know.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_06: That's all uh that's all to be seen.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, um but I will tell you, I do believe that the next five to ten years are gonna be very different than the last five to ten years.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_05: I think that there's gonna be advances that we cannot even think of right now, but we'll see.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_06: You think so?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_06: You're probably correct on that.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_06: So well, I mean, there there's a lot of stuff that I've been able to automate, like, and it's just little stuff like following up to emails or leads, like, hey, I saw you looked at the property, and it's like I don't have time to sit there and go through and it's like, oh my gosh.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_06: And I said, I said, I'm gonna train Claude to do this, and then Claude's like following up every day.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, oh, you know, this is great.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_06: So anyway.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I there's gonna be some level of automation, but they're not gonna replace the real estate investor, you know.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I think I don't know.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_06: I I think there's gonna be like a shift to where there's a level of distrust, and I think you already see that happening.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_06: So I think people like you that have a lot of video content of you out there on podcasts will do very well because it's authenticity, because like when you or your husband log into Facebook, you're trained to immediately think this video's fake or this is fake, or that girl or guy are fake, because 90% of it is.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_06: You know, exactly.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and and some people have, you know, we've had this conversation because I I run a weekly meetup that's online.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and we've had this conversation about like, you know, how do you post online?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_05: How what do you post, things like that?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, I post me.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_05: Like literally, if you meet me tomorrow on the street, I'll be the exact same person.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_05: I don't try to change anything.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_05: I'll try to lie, I don't try to I mean I'm you know, I'm I'm still a woman, so I might make myself look a little better with a filter, but that's about it.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_06: Well, we all do that.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_06: I might have to get a hair transplant.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_06: Oh man.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_06: No, but I I think there's I don't know.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_06: There's something I I think there's gonna be some bombarding of like too many emails because of the automation, but that's been going on for a long time already.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_06: To where I almost don't do any email marketing hardly anymore, unless it's a very specific list.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_06: And I don't think you email more than once every two weeks if you do email marketing, because it's like you get them and these emails are just keep coming, and you're like, who is this person?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_06: You're like, oh my gosh, and it just ends up in junk, so it kills their email address.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_06: So I think a little too much AI and automation will it'll it'll actually hurt your brand, you know.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_06: But that's just my opinion.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_06: I think a lot of the live interactions will tend to do well, you know, the podcasting and the videos and stuff like that.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_05: Um I agree.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, the unedited unedited version.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_05: Where everything can go.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_06: So um were you guys are y'all staying mainly in Texas going forward?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_05: I think so.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_05: So we're not open to going other places.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_05: One of our deals is in uh Tulsa, Oklahoma, so very close to to the border, but still another state, and then we have one that's in North Carolina.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_05: Everything else is in Texas.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_05: I me personally, I've fallen in love with Texas over the years.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know how it happened that little me from a little town in France is full Texan now.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_05: But uh, but that's how it happened, and and yeah, I I ideally we we keep looking at things like um deals in in that area.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_05: We do have uh some partners in Florida that that like those markets, like Florida, the the Carolinas.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_05: So we're open to that as well.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but yeah, mostly Texas.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I really like Florida, but my only fear about it is the insurance and you know the hurricanes and all that.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_06: I think you have to be really careful.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_06: I think if you can get a good deal that came off of like a bank repo and got it at a really low basis, I think it would be worth going into Florida.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_06: Um, but some of it, it's like, I don't know, some of these areas like Miami, you think it's like topped out and it just keeps going higher for the till the end of time, you know, but I just don't know about it.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's kind of one of those markets where I'm like, it's taken a hit lately, similar to a lot of the Sunbelt states.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_06: I think it's gotten way overbuilt, you know, in some areas.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_06: So, you know, even Austin, Texas, it got way overbuilt, you know.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_05: Uh near and I agree with you, and I think that's why for us we we love certain markets like right off the bat, but we're still gonna take a closer look at the deal always, because I I'm a big believer that you make your money when you buy.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_05: And at the end of the day, it almost doesn't matter where you are.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_05: You can find a great deal in Los Angeles, probably.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_05: Um I mean it it it might be a little hard, but but but it's just Doable, right?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_05: The the question is who are you buying it from?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_05: What is the state of what's the condition of the property and what's the purchase price, you know?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_06: So when you go into these deals, you're going in with uh several uh GPs, or you're part of like you're a co-GP basically, right?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_05: Correct.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_06: And you'll go in and just take that sucker down and uh do it together, right?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_05: That's it.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_05: It's all about teamwork.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_06: Do y'all throw a party after you close?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_05: Uh oh yeah.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I'll I'd have a good we haven't thrown one yet, um, the way that I would love to throw one, where it's like a big party where everybody's invited, investors, residents, everyone, but that's still in the back of my mind for sure.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_06: So um what what kind of due diligence and all that do y'all go into, you know, when you go into the properties?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_06: What kind of reporting do you do for your investors?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_06: You know, how how do you communicate with them and stuff like that?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_06: You know, if somebody's, you know, saying, hey, you know, I kind of like what they're doing.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_06: I want to kind of reach out and how just so they know kind of how y'all operate, you know.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_06: If I were an investor, you know, and I did a Austin or uh Dallas or Houston complex with you, let's say that.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_06: How does all that work?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_05: So to to go back to your question about due diligence, for us it's it we're big on figuring out what is the the property's condition, right?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_05: I think it goes back to uh the property management background where I want to know what I'm getting into that you cannot see.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_05: Like the what is the age of the roof?
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_05: What is the age of like the not the age, but what is the condition of the plumbing, the condition of the electric.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_05: Those things that like, hey, it may not look sexy to you, especially passive investors.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_05: You know, it always looks great when you can send a picture of a property that looks fantastic.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_05: But for me as a co-GP, if I know that behind the walls everything is crumbling, I I don't want that.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_05: Um I think that having a very big grasp on what kind of capex are we looking at, not just right now, but also by the time we resale and all that kind of thing, that's very important.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_05: And then of course, going back to the team aspect, like, hey, who is actually gonna run this project?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_05: Not just be on the team and bring on their investors or be part of the acquisition or whatever it is, but who is actually going to be on the phone with the property manager multiple times a week at the beginning, even if it gets down to once or once a week or every other week down the road, um, I want to see who that person is.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_05: Ideally, I want to be that person, right?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_05: Because I feel like I know the the mentality of the property manager on the other side.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_05: Um it's not always the case for us, but those are the things that we want to know.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, hey, what is the property looking like really?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_05: Not just on pictures, and then also what is the team looking like really?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_05: And then in terms of the communication, I mean, for me, I I always tell my my clients at work and my investors, I I even have a tendency to over-communicate.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_05: If you want to hear less from us, like don't hesitate.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_05: I won't get in my feelings or anything.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_05: Because one thing that I learned early on is that people don't like surprises, they just don't like people don't mind negative, sorry, they just don't like surprises.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm always gonna keep you updated and say, hey, this is what's going on.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_05: Like even if I have nothing to say, I'm gonna say, hey, nothing to say this month or this week or whatever.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_05: Like I know we were waiting to hear back from this project.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_05: Well, turns out nothing happened yet.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_05: But at least I want you to know that.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_05: And and and I want you to feel like like you're part of it.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I'm kind of like, how much is too much communication?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_06: And then, you know, if you don't communicate, so I've been in this situation where I'm the co-GP and I'm telling the operator you need to send something out, even if nothing's happened.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_06: And if they don't, I'm like, okay, you need to send something out.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_06: You don't understand why.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_06: Because these investors, if they don't hear from you, they start thinking the worst, you know.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_05: Or if they don't hear from you and they think no news, good news, when they do hear from you and it wasn't good news, they didn't for an awakening.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I I think that, you know, uh communicating as much as possible is good, but it's like okay, it get it can get a little tedious.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_06: I've been on both sides of it, so you know it's like okay.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, because at the end of the day if you're a passive investor, you also don't necessarily want to be in the weeds every day.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_05: So it's finding that right balance of like maybe you don't care about that part.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_05: As long as it doesn't make a huge, huge difference, why would you need to know that unless you tell me you want to know about it, right?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_06: So Yeah.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_06: So are y'all typically going in and doing a pretty big capex, or are you just doing light remodels or you know, what what does that typically look like?
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_06: Is this like class C heavy value add or just like class B where it's you know a little bit, or you know, how does that look?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we haven't done any like deep class C where it's like, hey, right off the bat, the property looks terrible or whatnot.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_05: Um I mean, even our first triplex, we did we did um what was the name of it?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_05: A two or three K loan.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_05: Sorry, it took me a second to remember.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_05: And that means we had up to 50k to spend on on remodeling, but even that was like repainting and redoing the floors and like putting washer dryers, like stuff like that.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_05: Um, it wasn't anything like down to the studs.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_05: Uh with our multifamily, so obviously we have our that new development that I talked about earlier.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_05: But other than that, we've done one class A that we love.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_05: Um and then everything else was B pretty much.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_06: B, where it's a little bit of value add, but nothing crazy.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_05: I think it's more important to be in the path of progress.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_05: Like the property, whether it's great or terrible, you can change.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_05: But if you're not in the right neighborhood, it's gonna be tough.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I think for investors, like a lot of passive investors don't really understand like the class C and those really bad properties, they do have upside, but they come with a lot of risk.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_06: Because you have to, you absolutely have to have somebody you have a high confidence that they can execute.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_06: With what y'all are doing, y'all still need to execute, but it's not like you know, life or death, you know.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_06: Exactly.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_06: If you get behind on a heavy value ad, it's like it'll just kill the project.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_06: So and you you saw that a lot, you know.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_06: A lot of investors, it's like they never, you know, like projects are thrown back like 18 months and you're like, you know, it was just the wrong execution team.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_06: So I think um, you know, the more communication, especially during the uh value add, is very important.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_06: But at some point it's like, okay, if all you're doing is collecting rent, I think once a quarter or once a month's more than enough.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm exactly well, it's interesting stuff.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_06: So um so what's the um best way for is there what what else do you want to talk about?
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, totally up to you.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I I I love to talk, I could talk about real estate all day, every day.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_06: So I actually want to talk to you about um so you're in business with your husband, right?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_06: How is that?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_05: Do y'all love it or Oh well, yeah.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_05: Uh we you love it as much as you can love working with family, right?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_06: I just I don't know.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_06: That's kind of a weird question because it I mean, I know you're not gonna say anything bad, but uh the last guy I had on, he he actually was in business with his wife for 40 years, and they loved it and they just worked very well with it as a team.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_06: So it's like I think y'all have to be good at different things.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_06: And I don't know, there's got to be like some separation, like where there's you can't be around each other like every 10 seconds, and that's with anybody, you have to have your space, you know.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_06: So but he's he's like, She's really good at this, and I'm really good at that, and we just kind of found a way to work together, and you know, and they have stories of them like rehabbing stuff with a sledgehammer, and it's both them in there.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_06: And I said, You didn't hit each other with it, you you know, only one, you know.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, you know, our our first triop like, so I think for us, this is what we thought we could do it, and and so far it's been great, right?
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, it it's always weird to me when I have to send my husband calendar invites, but other than that, we're but um the first time that we realized we could do it was uh again going back to that triple, like so this is this is how it happened.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_05: At the time we were just dating, I had decided that I wanted to own where I lived and that I wanted to make an investment.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_05: And around the same time, it was just coincidental that he his uh building where he where my husband lived at the time was being sold.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_05: So it was the perfect opportunity for him to say, Let me get out of my lease and move in with you, and we're just gonna do this landlord thing together.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_05: Uh because it was the first time for both of us.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_05: And that actually happened to be March 2020.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_05: So within a couple of weeks of us moving in together, the world shut down, and now we were like first-time owners, first-time landlords, COVID happened, everybody's quarantine.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_05: And so, yeah, once you survive that, you're like, okay, I think we can survive anything.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's hard for a marriage to survive one remodel.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_06: You know, if you survive COVID and a remodel together, you know, that's that's pretty impressive.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_06: So I just I see you post him about your husband quite what's his name again?
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_06: Connor.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_06: Connor, okay.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_06: I s I see the post with him on there.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_06: I think it's wonderful that y'all are involved in business together.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_06: I've done one with my dad before, and you know, it's you you hear about different families breaking up because they started a business together.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_06: So anyway, it's it's typical, you know.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_06: Most business partners, even if it was just like a friend of mine and not a spouse, you know, they one so the business will either be really successful and that one of them will get greedy and start taking too many vacations, and the other one's doing all the work, so they'll hate each other, or it'll fail and they hate each other.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_06: You know, it typically doesn't end well.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_06: So for y'all to be working well together is a good thing.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_05: So But I will tell you, coming out of a like like deciding to to scale our real estate into a business and coming out of a coaching program and all of that, where it was like, okay, it's go time now.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I don't think I could have done that by myself.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_05: I've seen a lot of students do it where it's like just them.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_05: And and I always give credit to my husband.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_05: Like I think it's very important to have somebody who can tell you, hey, it's okay when things get tough and stuff like that.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_05: And for me, I I feel very, very lucky that for me it's my husband, right?
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_05: I don't have to like call him in another state or something like that.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_06: Well, what you're talking about, it's like very important who your partners are, and it's like it's very hard to go alone.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_06: And you know, that's the biggest probably one of the mistakes, like early on when I started becoming an entrepreneur and trying to do stuff.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_06: I always saw other people as like competition.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_06: And I should have like said, why don't I just collaborate with them?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_06: Or say, hey, do you need help?
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_06: I'm not gonna be an employee, but maybe we could partner on a few things and you'd learn so much and you'd you'd get so much more accomplished by going that route versus seeing them as competition, you know, and collaborate on it.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I totally agree with you.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_06: It's just different how your mind, like when you're younger, and then you start to mature a little bit, and you're like, okay, yeah, it's it's it's really hard for anybody to do anything by themselves.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_06: So anyway.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_05: Let alone start a business.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_05: Because if there's one thing that's hard out there, I mean, I'm not a parent yet, but I would assume that those are probably the two hardest things you can try in life.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_05: Raise a kid and start a business.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_06: So if you don't have good partners, you're gonna need good employees, you're gonna need help from somewhere.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_06: So, anyway.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_06: Um, anyway, what what's probably the best way for somebody to I know you're really popular on LinkedIn.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so other than you can find Linda Holtz on LinkedIn, and what are the other ways to get a hold of you?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_06: I think, you know, talking about your chats that you have every week, you know, for different investors to come meet the team and meet other people.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_06: I think those are great hosting events that you do online.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_06: How long has that been running, actually?
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_05: So next month is gonna be two years.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_05: And and when I say two years, it's gonna be two years since my co-host and I took over.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, but it actually existed before for about a year and a half.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_05: So it it's it's been uh running along.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's it's it's a lot of fun for me.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_05: I think uh the we made it a networking call on purpose.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_05: So we don't try to teach anything, it there's no speaker or anything like that.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_05: It's really just come and talk shop.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, exactly.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_05: Like find potential partners, find potential investors.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_05: That's it.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's they're not trying to hard sell anybody or make anybody do anything they're not comfortable with.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_06: You know, it's come on there, learn about real estate, learn about what y'all are doing, talk with other professionals and you know, just chat, save the chat, something like that.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, it's cool save the chat.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_05: And and by the way, it's cool save the chat because I always tell people like, hey, of course we want you to come back to the call.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but connect outside of that.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_05: You can't connect outside of it if you don't save people's information.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_05: So we're very big on let us be the catalyst, I guess, but eventually go out on your own, do your own deals, find your own partners, you know.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_06: I've been throwing in-person networking events, and I tell people, I want you to leave here.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_06: We don't like the hard pitches.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_06: We kind of don't want a lot of insurance.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_06: It's not that insurance reps are bad.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_06: We actually had one at the last one, but we just said no hard pitches, you know.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_06: We don't want people feeling like they're they get anxiety about going to these events, like people are gonna hard sell them.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_06: You know, let people just talk and hang out, and you should feel like you should be able to call anybody that's in here, not just me.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_06: You know, it's about y'all building your network as well, so they, you know, feel like they can come and have a community that they can turn to because you know, a lot of them have different challenges and helping them with it.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_06: It's like entrepreneurs that show up.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_06: You know, we a lot of these business owners will invest with you too, but you know, sometimes you it starts by you helping them with a problem first, you know.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_06: So learn how other professionals are you utilizing AI, you know, and stuff like that is pretty fascinating.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_06: Some of the stuff people are doing.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_06: So anyway.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_06: Um but I'll let you talk about what's what is the best way to uh get a hold of you.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so uh as you mentioned, I'm I'm big on LinkedIn, started that a couple of years ago, and realized that I have a lot of fun with it, so I just kept going.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um our our company is married to real estate, so everything out there is either Married to Real Estate or M2RE.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_05: Um that's our our acronym on Instagram.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_06: M M2RE dot com.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_06: That's really cool.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_05: Our website is married number two real estate.com, and then on Instagram it's M2RE T X for Texas.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_06: So it'll pop up with the the number two, not TWO.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_06: So correct, yeah.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_06: Linda Linda Holtz.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_06: You're not hard to find if you type in Linda Holtz Real Estate.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_06: So Good.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_06: Good to know.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_06: How many um how many uh messages do you get on LinkedIn?
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_06: I'm getting to the point where I get too many where I'm like, oh my gosh.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_05: I literally have to, I I wrote it earlier today, so it's kind of funny that you're asking that because I wrote it for a Monday.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_05: I have my paper planner, I'm old school like that.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_05: And so whenever I know that I want to do certain things on certain days, I I'll write it down.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_05: And I wrote that next week I have to catch up to my inbox because it's insane.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_05: The amount of messages is like ridiculous now.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_06: I looked at mine, I was like, holy moly.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_06: So I'll go through and just reply to them all at once, you know.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_06: The sales women sit in right now, just say, not for me right now, and then you know, go through and find out which ones you need to reply to and which ones you don't, and all that.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_06: So anyway.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_05: And every time I catch up, I tell myself, like, okay, so now I just have to like stay on top of it, right?
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_05: Like every two to three messages, just answer those right away.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_05: And then all of a sudden you wake up and you have six and you're like, Oh, never mind.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_05: And then you wait a week and it's 12, and you're like, Oh, okay.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_06: I I don't know why.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_06: They come in waves too, so it's hard to manage.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_06: Like you'll only get a few for a while, and then you all of a sudden you'll look up and you're like, Golly, there's 20 in here.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_06: You know, it's just different.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_06: So well, uh, great having you.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, fun watching everybody's journey, and uh, we will be in touch and all that.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_06: So we appreciate you.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you again so much for having me on.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, absolutely.